Homemade Ice Cream

As a kid, I've always wanted to make my ice cream. Which would never occur to my immigrant Vietnamese mother. Why make things from scratch when you can buy them already made at the store? Luxuries that we Americans are used to were rare (if even available) for my parents when they lived in Vietnam. Wal-Mart is a mecca for them. Anything they want, they can buy. They worked hard to move to the States and to be able to afford the things they like.

Of course my sister and I have the opposite mentality. We attempt to re-use and recycle. We even go thrifting (to the horror of my dad who doesn't understand why we would buy something used when we can afford something new)! To them, shopping at the thrift store reminds them of when they first immigrated to the States and all they could afford were used dishes and furniture.

Anyway, I took Sophia to one of our favorite places, Whole Foods to hang out with one of our favorite people, Chef Egg. August's class was homemade ice cream! No ice cream maker required. It was so easy, you can make it at home in 10 minutes!

We love the Half Pints classes at Whole Foods. They're free and they teach kids to have fun making/cooking food. Check out your local Whole Foods page for the calendar of events. Our Silver Spring location will have one about after school snacks later this month.


First, add sugar, vanilla extract, and half & half to a quart sized ziptop bag (recipe will follow after pictures). Make sure bag is zipped closed completely. Squeeze to mix everything up, making sure you don't feel anymore grains of sugar. You can add any other flavorings you want in this step too: crushed berries, smashed bananas, chocolate syrup, etc.


Add lots of ice and sea salt to a gallon sized ziptop bag. Place sugar & half & half bag into larger bag. Close it up and start shaking. (Love that action shot) Shake and shake. Then shake some more. If you have leakage, you'll have to start over (we did). It takes about 10 or so minutes. Don't get to vigorous with the shaking as you might break open the inside bag. Once the ice milk (that's what you're really making) is to your desire consistency, remove it from the ice bag.

Squeeze all the ice milk into a cup, add your favorite toppings and enjoy! As you can see Sophia added lots of whipped cream and strawberries.

Double Bagger Ice Cream Recipe (courtesy of Whole Foods)

1/2 cup Half & Half
1 drop of vanilla extract
1T of sugar
1 Ziptop bag, quart sized

4C of Ice
4T of Rock Salt (Chef Egg used sea salt)
1 Ziptop bag, gallon sized

Mix the half and half with the vanilla and sugar in the small bag. Place ice and salt in the big bag. Place small bag inside the big bag and shake for 5-10 minutes until the ice cream is solid. Scoop out of bag and enjoy.

Panties & Yogurt (not at the same time)

My word of the year, focus, is fresh in my mind since I finally chose it. That means, I'm getting some sewing done!

I finally finished the last of the Christmas pj bottoms. The only ones not done by Christmas day was mine and hubby's. All they needed was elastic in the waistband. Of course it took me 2 weeks to do that. But they are done and I'm wearing my comfy flannel pj bottoms as I type this.

My big accomplishment was last night I made my first pair of underwear! No, not your grandma's underwear. (It feels wrong to say panties on my blog.) Since I decided to starting making them at 1am this morning, I accidentally cut 1 size too big. I made them out of some fuchsia cotton knit I got off the clearance rack at Joanns about 3 months ago. I'll spare you the pictures of my underwear.

I used Stretch & Sew F829 (now discontinued I think). The pattern is very easy. 3 pieces. It gave me a chance to use foldover elastic. So the panties (yikes I said it) have a nice, commercial finished looked. I used purple elastic. I bought a huge grab bag of FOE from Kathy's for only $15 with shipping a while back and have been trying to use it every chance I get. You can read some reviews and see some pics of the pattern at Pattern Review.

Am I crazy for making my own panties? Maybe some of the moms in my moms group think it's a little crazy. It just feels good to say you made your own panties. It only took me an hour, from cutting to sewing. Not bad for the first one. Now that I know what I'm doing the rest will go much faster. I think it might be fun to make some and Gocco something cheeky on the backside. I'll save that for another day.

My Easiyo Yogurt Maker arrived from Amazon last week. I've made my second batch of yogurt last night. Yum! It's much easier than I expected. The Easiyo works like a thermos, so no plugging in required. My first batch was a bit runny as Easiyo doesn't provide directions for making your yogurt from scratch (they sell mixes--too expensive and full of sugar). I just googled for some recipes. You don't even need a starter. Just buy some plain yogurt from the grocery store that says "live cultures" on it. I used this recipe, just didn't have any heavy cream, so I left it out. I used 3 cups of 2% milk and 3 tablespoons of plain yogurt.

I had some with honey and granola this morning. I'll have to try Not Exactly Bento's yogurt with frozen blueberries next. While you're there, try the grilled cheese sandwich with apple she talks about. Yum!

Before I leave, I need some fun sayings I could Gocco on the backside of my panties (yet to be made of course). What do you think my butt should say?

Hibernating & Hot Chocolate with a kick!

My self-imposed break was just what the doctor ordered. I wasn't sure what I was going to do during my break. Turns out it's a lot of reading! I'm a pretty fast reader. I can devour a book a day. I forget how much I love reading!

I finished The Lace Reader last week (in 2 days). It was a rather intriguing novel. I'll share my thoughts with you in another post. Now I'm working on Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl. I just received 2 of my 3 books for the Elle Reader review program. My reviews for those are due January 14th. I better get reading!

Christmas was great. It was very relaxing. DH, in his true dramatic flair, is sending me on a secret mission this Monday as my gift. (Don't forget he works at the International Spy Museum) He even made up a video and everything, detailing my mission. Kinda like Mission Impossible. So Monday, I'm off to a 2 hour spa treatment: manicure, pedicure, facial, and massage! Wheeee! After that I'm supposed to wear something cute. I have no idea where he's taking me, but you bet I'll be so relaxed, I won't care.

I know I said I'm on a break, but I'm still working here and there. Answering emails and getting ready for our Valentine's Season. I need to change my website over (don't look, it's still on Christmas theme), get my new brochures labeled and all that stuff. I'm even going to do an end of year sale.

Giving myself permission to relax is doing wonders for my stress level. I don't feel like I need to do anything. But I can if I want to. What have you given yourself permission to do this holiday season?

Hunker down with my version of Mexican hot cocoa:

In a saucepan, add 2 Tbsp of unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar (less or more to taste), a shake of cinnamon, freshly grated nutmeg (optional), and about 2 1/2 cups of milk. Heat it up, whisking occasionally. When it gets hot and everything is dissolved, ladle into your favorite mug.

The Mexican part is this: sprinkle a bit of chili powder or cayenne pepper into your mug. Stir it in. Then top it off with whipped cream if you're feeling decadent.

photo by DeathByBokeh

Guavaritas!

Friday we hosted a tree trimming & gingerbread house making party. It was quite the success. I think it might become an annual event. My baked crab rangoons were a hit. Even made a new friend!

Thanks to the fabulous drink that Cynjon introduced me to, I had a verrrrry good time. If you like spicy stuff, the guavaritas are the way to go. Jalapeno infused tequila with guava juice. This batch was much spicier than the last time.

It was great way to unwind. In fact, I felt so relaxed, I didn't even trim the tree or make a gingerbread house! Yep, all I did was drink, eat candy meant for decorating the houses, and do shots. Yep. That's what I said.

Shots of jalapeno infused tequila. I don't remember the last time I did shots--probably the few years right after I graduated college. Damn they were good! Cynjon, you really try shooting that tequila! Only one of my friends was brave enough to shoot the tequila with me. I think I drank him under the table. Hehehehehe.

Thankfully, my friends trimmed the tree for me, and they made some fabulous gingerbread houses! That's the church made by my long time friend Brandon. We don't get to hang out enough. He's like a brother--because we fight alot.

Oh yeah, here's the guavarita recipe. Give it a go! I think it would work great with some Passion Fruit nectar too.

Guavaritas
the "bulk" version

Add 2 to 3 sliced jalapenos to a bottle of white tequila. Let this sit for a couple of hours...the longer it sits, the spicier it gets. Add 1 cup lemon juice, and 1 cup Cointreau to the mix. Once the jalapenos have "steeped," scoop them out, and combine the mixture with pure guava nectar to desired strength...some folks want just a splash of the mix, and some folks want just a splash of the nectar!

I substituted orange Curacao since it was easier on my pocketbook than Cointreau. It still tasted great.

What's with the whole grains?

Photo via Jill - Glossy Veneer via flickr

Looking back a couple of years ago, I would have never believed that I'd be baking my own bread every couple of weeks. We only buy sandwich bread from the store if I'm super short on time. We started the switch to whole grains gradually. First bread, then brown rice, barley, even quinoa. It's still hard to give up white rice, since I'm Vietnamese-American, and we at white rice almost everyday. Kind of like how some people ketchup on everything.

Since I do most of the cooking in our home, it wasn't hard to convince hubby to switch. He doesn't really enjoy cooking (he does make a mean meatloaf), so he had to eat it. And you know what? Whole grains are really good! You just have to experiment with different flavorings and cuisines to find out how you like your quinoa and barley. My high school friend has adapted whole grains along with me. She even has a great blog called Not Exactly Bento. She's making lunch fun again!

Baking your own whole wheat bread doesn't have to be difficult, especially when you have a bread maker. I scored mine from Freecycle. Here's the recipe I've adapted and made my own. I love it! It makes a great 100% whole wheat bread--soft, not too dense, and yummy of course! My daughter will just eat the slices plain. So try it out and let me know what you think.

This bread makes a great peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Kim's Easy Whole Wheat Bread

You don't need a bread maker for this, but I let the bread maker do all the work up until the second rising.

I put the wet ingredients first because that's what my machine likes. So just follow your bread maker's suggestions. This calls for whole wheat, but white whole wheat makes a lighter bread. I check while it's kneading to make sure it's not too wet or dry (depends on your humidity). The dough should be slightly sticky to touch. If it's too dry, just add a bit of water as it kneads; wait, and add more if needed. Same with more flour if it's too wet.

1 1/3c water
2-3 teaspoons of oil (veggie, canola, or olive oil)
1/4c. of honey

3 to 3 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
2 tsp of salt
1/4c of whole flax seeds (or sunflower seeds is good too but this is optional)
2 tsp of yeast (1 pkt I think)

Add to ingredients to bread maker. Set it to small or medium loaf and voila!

BUT if you want a lighter bread, use Dough Cycle It'll beep after the first rise is complete. For second rise, butter loaf pan (butter is the best, i used oil and the bread stuck horribly). Shape into loaf shape, put ugly side down into loaf pan. oil top of dough. Cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour (until the bread has risen about 3/4" over top of pan).

Bake 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees. If you want a soft top, butter it (I just run a stick of butter over it). Cool completely before slicing (hardest part). I think that redistributes the steam inside to give you a more moist loaf.

Have fun and let me know if you make some!